


Unaware but Underlined

by okayokayigive



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 01:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/768624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okayokayigive/pseuds/okayokayigive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the mid-1990s, and five best friends from Torchwood University are about to graduate and move on to the rest of their lives…but not before they have one last night together, and support one of their own through a painful loss. With gratuitous Take That!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unaware but Underlined

**Author's Note:**

> Hits my “College AU” square for Trope Bingo, and completes my bingo! Woo! Fic based on the image below; [my original plotbunny is here](http://okayokayigive.tumblr.com/post/28376768991/its-like-the-doctor-picked-up-his-torchwood).

  


They’ve been friends forever, or so it seems. Came up through uni together, at the very least. Late nights in pubs, early morning coffee runs, make-ups and breakups and car crashes and lost jobs and crushed dreams - through all of it, it’s always been the five of them, together. No matter what.

There have been interlopers, of course - visitors that came in and out of their lives - like Rhys, and Jeanette, and Diane, and Katie, and Anthony, and Martha, and Sarah, and Ianto, and Rex, and the seemingly endless string of Jack’s hangers-on…but in the end it’s always them: the five of them against the world.

Which was why it’s so hard to believe this is their last night together. Tomorrow they graduate. Tomorrow they move on to the rest of their lives. Tomorrow the late-night madness gives way to full-time jobs, occasional phone calls, scheduled brunches, and…distance.

But tonight? Tonight is one last night, the five of them, together. No matter how stressed or mopey or sleepy or otherwise Seven Dwarf-y they are…tonight is just them. Sweatpants and cider and a crappy stereo and the secondhand couches set back in the corner of Gwen and Tosh’s dingy old flat.

Tonight is laughter and memories and old songs. Tonight is about Gwen making faces at Jack’s constant innuendo, and Owen trying to flirt with Gwen, and Tosh wishing she could flirt with Owen, and Jack being a pretty, pretty princess all over the flat. Tonight is all of them coming together to gang up on the Doctor about his nickname - a game they’ll never grow tired of, no matter how far across the world their new lives might take them.

Tonight, though, they’ll be a little more gentle, because the Doctor had lost his love too early, to an overseas job that started before graduation. She’d left with little notice, fully devoting herself to her new world…and he didn’t know when (or if) he’d ever see her again.

So if they’re all a little nicer to him - if they don’t treat him so much as their dorky little brother, but more like a solid friend, it’s understandable.

And if they all drink a little more than they otherwise would, especially on a night before such a big day, it’s in support of a broken heart.

And if they all look more than a little silly when the timer on the camera snicks to capture the moment, it’s nothing more than the support and the late hour and maybe the alcohol talking.

And if, later that night, when they’re all a little drunk and sleepy, Gwen mumbles “got a picture of you beside me” and Jack joins in “and your lipstick mark still on your coffee cup”, it’s the mark of making a memory.

And if the Doctor shoves them both aside and belts: “got a fist of pure emotion, got a head of shattered dreams. Gotta leave it, gotta leave it all behind now” and stops, and sobs, and whispers “Rose”? Well, they’ll just hold him a little tighter for it.


End file.
